Julio Rodriguez faces severe backlash from anime fans as Mariners star places one among 'The Big Three' at number five: "One Piece No. 5?"

Since breaking into MLB last year, Julio Rodriguez of the Seattle Mariners has given fans of his team little to complain about. After cruising to a first-place finish in AL Rookie of the Year voting in 2022, the young Dominican is putting up another strong campaign.

So far in 2023, the 22-year old is hitting .285/.342/.495 with 30 home runs and 99. Additionally, the center fielder's 175 hits leads all registered AL batters, and helped him punch his ticket to his second straight All-Star appearance.

As brilliant as Rodriguez has been, he is quickly learning that he cannot please everybody all of the time. In a recent appearance on Mookie Betts' Bleacher Report program On Base, Julio Rodriguez was pressed to name his favorite anime series.

"Mookie Betts named one anime to Julio Rodríguez at a time and had him blind-rank five of them. This was J-Rod's final list: (via @BleacherReport" - MLB Life

In his one-on-one interview with Betts, who plays for the Los Angeles Dodgers, J-Rod listed his favorite anime characters. Anime refers to a type of Japanese graphic stories that have gained widespread popularity outside their nation of origin. Despite being forthright with his picks, fans were quick to critique his selections.

Julio Rodriguez, who was named the AL Player of the Month for August, listed Naruto as his favorite anime series. Naruto is a manga series created by artist Masashi Kishimoto, and tells the story of a young ninja. Many, however, did not seem on-board with the young Seattle Mariners star's selections.

Dragon Ball Z and Demon Slayer came in at numbers two and three respectively on Julio Rodriguez' list. According to the 6-foot-3 offensive juggernaut, he has been watching anime for a long time. His love of the Japanese artform has been near to his heart since he was a young boy growing up in the western Dominican city of Loma de Cabrera.

Julio Rodriguez is another in a long list of anime-loving baseball stars

In addition to Rodriguez, Angels pitcher Lucas Giolito as well as Chicago White Sox slugger Luis Robert Jr. are among the MLB stars who love anime. While Rodriguez indeed seems to have good reasons for liking the anime series' that he does, offering your opinion as a public figure is sure to draw criticism. By this point, it is likely that Rodriguez, despite his young age, is getting to know that.